It’s now official: The Lord of the Rings screenwriting team of Peter Jackson (pictured), Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens will join The Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro to pen the screenplay for the two planned Hobbit movies. Sources tell EW.com that the scribes’ deals are all complete and they have already begun writing. (With shooting scheduled to begin Fall 2009, at the earliest, in New Zealand, the quartet better get busy!) The Hobbit will center on Frodo’s uncle, Bilbo Baggins, and his initial discovery of the immensely-powerful ring. New Line and MGM plan to release the two films Christmas 2011 and Christmas 2012.
Aug 19
2008
05:48 PM ET
Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens join Guillermo Del Toro penning 'The Hobbit'
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And so it was that the world let out a collective nerd-gasm.
Amen.
Hooray, some good news in the wake of the Harry Potter movie delay debacle. Now we’re guaranteed to have a faithful version of this book on film. Just a tiny request from a humble fan: please bring Viggo and Orlando back to join Ian McKellan in reprising their roles. PLEASE!!!!
*** Hey, Legolas Greenleaf ***
How can you be looking for a faithful version of the book, and also want Legolas & Aragorn in the movie, who aren’t in The Hobbit? But Elrond (Hugo Weaving!) is.
Nerds, nerds, nerds, nerds!
Whoo hoo! I’m so excited, I don’t know how I’ll possibly wait until 2011… I wonder if it’s too late to start a career in something related to movie-making so I can go join them…?
Spenner, I think he’s talking about the second movie, which happens between The Hobbit and the LOTR Trilogy
as long as legolas doesn’t surf on a shield through any battles, yay…though the more I think of it, the more I remember that the screenplay adaptation was actually my least favorite thing about the LotR movies…but whatever! I refuse to be picky fanboy! yay!
The second movie, the in-between one, is a great idea! All the outline is there, in appendices and backstory told by (as I remember) Gandalf. Aragorn would absolutely be part of it – the hunt for Gollum – as well as lot of other familiar characters including the Elves from Lothlorien. Legolas and others would be a little harder to explain given that they are apparently meeting for the first time at the Council of Elrond.
Spenne: LOTR borrowed from other sources. There was dialogue and set pieces that came from work outside of ‘Lord of the Rings,’ or took from the appendices. Nearly all of Aragorn’s romance with Arwen was drawn from Tolkien’s appendices and retroactively inserted into the Ring narrative. A similar ploy could be used to bring Aragorn back for Bilbo’s journey (or, perhaps more appropriately, to surround and follow Bilbo’s journey), since Tolkien provided an extensive backstory for the once and future king of Middle Earth in his other writings. And Thranduil figures in The Hobbit, so a cameo by Orlando as Legolas is not unreasonable. You killjoy.
Jackson himself commented on some of these potential plot lines in an interview last September with AICN, where he talked about how he’d “love to work with Viggo again [possibly by having] Aragorn protecting the Shire.”
If they keep it true to Tolkien’s works (even his lesser known works and appendices), I’ll be happy. But don’t rewrite too much of it. The stories were all brilliant in print once–it can be as well on celluloid.
I’m really frakkin’ happy about this.
Oh, crap. I better stay away from my Tolkien sites now; the outrage over this development will hurt my brain.
Wait… is that Peter Jackson nowadays? He’s looking an awful lot like Dominic Monaghan in “Lost”.
I’m proud to be a nerd
Hahahahahaha! This is the best piece of news I’ve heard all week. It makes my day! I’m glad Jackson got the last laugh when the studio came crawling back to him and his team, after making a big spectacle out of not wanting him to direct this movie. I know Del Toro is loved by many, but I still wish Jackson was at the helm.
It’s going to be a great script!
Shona, you are right. He DOES look like Dominic Monaghan.
wow,u’d figure ew would know about the story, how does it center around bilbo but not about him finding the immensely powerful ring, it centers around smaug and the treasure. great research work there ew!